Maxine Schuurmans-Kinsley

Maxine Schuurmans Kinsley was born on October 31, 1927, the fifth of seven children to Sylvester and Lillian Petrik, on a heritage farm near Tyndall, South Dakota. She attended Koupal District #24 country school. Following her graduation from Tyndall High School in 1944, she attended two year of college separated by two years working in the Los Angeles, California area. On July 28, 1948, she was united in marriage to Virgil Schuurmans. The couple raised their six children on their farm located 4 miles south of Tyndall before moving into town in 1966. Maxine graduated that year from Southern State Teachers College and immediately began a 23-year career as Tyndall High School librarian and English teacher.
It was during Tyndall’s centennial celebration in 1979 that Maxine began cultivating a lifelong hobby of writing local and regional history, the first of which was “One Hundred Years of Tyndall - A Centennial History.” In 1989, she became a charter member of the Bon Homme Heritage Association and the first curator of the Heritage Museum. She was also a charter member of the Bon Homme County Abandoned Cemetery Association which successfully identified and restored several abandoned rural cemeteries.
In 1977, Maxine and Virgil built their retirement home on Lewis and Clark Lake six miles east of Springfield, South Dakota where they happily lived until Virgil’s death on June 6, 1992. She often said that many of her most treasured memories were of hosting large family gatherings there when the kids came home to visit. Her grandchildren’s memories of her mostly originate from there!
On March 29, 1999, Maxine was united in marriage to Berdell Kinsley and they made their home in Springfield. After his death on April 11, 2005, she moved to Yankton where she lived until recently moving back to Tyndall in August 2018.
Maxine passed away on Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at the Good Samaritan Society of Tyndall having attained the age of 91 years, 3 months, and 26 days.
She is survived and remembered by her children: James (Vicki) Schuurmans of Tyndall, SD, Bernie (Terri) of Madison, SD, Kay (Larry) Mehlhaff of Kaylor, SD, Rick (Carol) Schuurmans of Sioux Falls, SD, Jane (Jeff) Heinemeyer of Wentworth, SD, and Tom (Beth) Schuurmans of Lincoln, NE; brother Norman (Joyce) Petrik of Minneapolis, MN; 21 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; 3 step-children; 5 step-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Virgil Schuurmans, husband Berdell Kinsley, brothers: Edwin Petrik, Vernon Petrik, and infant brother Eugene Petrik, and sisters Darlene Szymanski and Mavis Balvin.

Private Family Memorial Service